Prolific checklist – have you done all of this?

If you’re signed up to Prolific and a member of our Facebook groupthen the chances are you’ve asked in there why you’re getting no surveys 🙂

Here’s a quick and easy checklist to go through to make sure you have the best chance of getting / seeing surveys on Prolific and making some easy money.

1) Make sure you’re signed up as a Participant, not a Researcher

2) THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! Make sure you have completed your prescreening questions – if you haven’t then you won’t see surveys as the site has no idea if you qualify for them. I can’t stress enough how important this is – 90% of people in our group that say they have no studies have not filled out these questions – they take a while but are vital. Click on the link in green to get to your prescreening questions. (NOTE: These are NOT the same as the initial questions you answered when you signed up – there are LOTS of them and without them, you’ll get no surveys) If you are on a mobile and click the above link you may have to scroll down on the page it loads to see the questions.

3) Make sure you check the site regularly – Prolific is slightly unusual in that the site doesn’t email you when studies are available, you have to check in regularly. (Also see Hannah’s Distill web monitor post as this will alert you to studies if you’re online on a PC/laptop/Mac)

4) Keep an eye on the Facebook Group – members often post when they see studies come up on Prolific and you can then check to see if they’re in your Studies area.

5) Recheck your Prescreening questions every so often – depending on new surveys, new ones come up all the time so it’s worth checking in every few days to see if you have any new ones.

6) If it’s been a couple of days and you’ve done all of the above, yet still have no studies, then it is worth contacting Prolific. It seems that occasionally an account gets put on unofficial ‘hold’ and the only way to give it a kick and start getting studies through is to contact Prolific direct. You can do this via the ‘Contact Us’ button on the top right on the desktop version of the site.

A few other questions we get asked:

How long does it take for study fees to be approved?This depends – some studies are approved immediately, some take a few weeks, others anything in between. If your fee hasn’t been approved after 21 days, Prolific will automatically approve it for you.

What’s the minimum cashout?Minimum cashout is £5, but there will be fees. Above £20 there are still fees on Paypal, but no fees on Circle. Fees are detailed on the cashout page (best to check there for up to date fees as they may change)

How long does cashout take?Again, anything from a couple of days to a week or so – I’ve not had any payout go more than 8 days

How much can I earn?Depending on how many surveys you get, this could be a good earner. From mid March to now (22nd June, I’ve made over £221. Others have made more, so it’s well worth doing.